The history of journalism, or the development of the gathering and transmitting of news,
spans the growth of technology and trade, marked by the advent of
specialized techniques for gathering and disseminating information on a
regular basis that has caused, as one history of journalism surmises,
the steady increase of "the scope of news available to us and the speed
with which it is transmitted. Newspapers have always been the primary
medium of journalists since 1700, with magazines added in the 18th
century, radio and television in the 20th century, and the Internet in
the 21st century.[1]

Early Journalism

World

Before the advent of the newspaper, there were two major kinds of
periodical news publications: the handwritten news sheet, and single
item news publications. These existed simultaneously.The Roman Empire published Acta Diurna ("Daily Acts"), or government announcement bulletins, around 59 BC, as ordered by Julius Caesar. They were carved in metal or stone and posted in public places.In China, early government-produced news sheets, called tipao, were commonly used among court officials during the late Han dynasty (2nd and 3rd centuries AD).In 1556, the government of Venice first published the monthly Notizie scritte ("Written notices") which cost one gazetta,[2] a Venetian coin of the time, the name of which eventually came to mean "newspaper". These avvisi were handwritten newsletters and used to convey political, military, and economic news quickly and efficiently throughout Europe, more specifically Italy, during the early modern era (1500-1800) — sharing some characteristics of newspapers though usually not considered true newspapers.[3]However, none of these publications fully met the classical criteria
for proper newspapers, as they were typically not intended for the
general public and restricted to a certain range of topics.Early publications played into the development of what would today be
recognized as the newspaper, which came about around 1601. Around the
15th and 16th centuries, in England and France, long news accounts
called "relations" were published; in Spain they were called
"relaciones".Single event news publications were printed in the broadsheet format, which was often posted. These publications also appeared as pamphlets and small booklets (for longer narratives, often written in a letter format), often containing woodcut illustrations. Literacy rates were low in comparison to today, and these news publications were often read aloud (literacy and oral culture were, in a sense, existing side by side in this scenario).By 1400, businessmen in Italian and German cities were compiling hand
written chronicles of important news events, and circulating them to
their business connections. The idea of using a printing press for this
material first appeared in Germany around 1600. The first gazettes
appeared in German cities, notably the weekly Relation aller Fuernemmen und gedenckwürdigen Historien ("Collection of all distinguished and memorable news") in Strasbourg starting in 1605. The Avisa Relation oder Zeitung was published in Wolfenbüttel from 1609, and gazettes soon were established in Frankfurt (1615), Berlin (1617) and Hamburg (1618). By 1650, 30 German cities had active gazettes.[4] A semi-yearly news chronicle, in Latin, the Mercurius Gallobelgicus, was published at Cologne between 1594 and 1635, but it was not the model for other publications.[citation needed]In the following decades, the national governments in Paris and London began printing official newsletters.[5] In 1622 the first English-language weekly magazine, "A current of General News" was published and distributed in England[6] in an 8- to 24-page quarto format.The first newspaper in France, the Gazette de France, was established in 1632 by the king's physician Theophrastus Renaudot (1586-1653), with the patronage of Louis XIII.[7] All newspapers were subject to prepublication censorship, and served as instruments of propaganda for the monarchy. Jean Loret
is considered to be one of France's first journalists. He disseminated
the weekly news of music, dance and Parisian society from 1650 until
1665 in verse, in what he called a gazette burlesque, assembled in three volumes of La Muse historique (1650, 1660, 1665).

England

17th Century

The London Gazette, facsimile front page from 3–10 September 1666, reporting on the Great Fire of London.

The 17th century saw the rise of political pamphleteering fuelled by the politically contentious times[8] - the English Civil War followed by the Interregnum and Glorious Revolution
polarized society along political lines and each party sought to garner
maximum public support by the distribution of pamphlets in the
coffeehouses where people would gather. The Oxford Gazette was printed in 1665 by Muddiman in the middle of the turmoil of the Great Plague of London
and was, strictly speaking, the first periodical to meet all the
qualifications of a true newspaper. It was printed twice a week by royal
authority and was soon renamed the London Gazette. Magazines were also moral tracts inveighing against moral decadence, notably the Mercurius Britannicus.[9]A milestone was reached in 1694; the final lapse of the Licensing Order of 1643 that had been put in place by the Stuart
kings put an end to heavy-handed censorship that had previously tried
to suppress the flow of free speech and ideas across society, and
allowed writers to criticize the government freely. From 1694 to the Stamp Act of 1712 the only censure laws forbade treason, seditious libel and the reporting of Parliamentary proceedings.[6]Prior to the Glorious Revolution journalism had been a risky line of work. One such victim was the reckless Benjamin Harris,
who was convicted for defaming the King's authority. Unable to pay the
large fine that was imposed on him he was put in prison. He eventually
made his way to America where he founded one of the first newspapers there. After the Revolution, the new monarch William III,
who had been installed by Parliament, was wary of public opinion and
did not try to interfere with the burgeoning press. The growth in
journalism and the increasing freedom the press enjoyed was a symptom of
a more general phenomenon - the development of the party system of
government. As the concept of a parliamentary opposition
became an acceptable (rather than treasonable) norm, newspapers and
editors began to adopt critical and partisan stances and they soon
became an important force in the political and social affairs of the
country.[10]

18th Century

By the beginning of the eighteenth century, Britain was an
increasingly stable and prosperous country with an expanding empire,
technological progress in industry and agriculture and burgeoning trade
and commerce. A new middle class consisting of merchants, traders, entrepreneurs and bankers
was rapidly emerging - educated, literate and increasingly willing to
enter the political discussion and participate in the governance of the
country. The result was a boom in journalism, in periodicals,
newspapers and magazines. Writers who had been dependent on a rich
patron in the past were now able to become self-employed by hiring out
their services to the newspapers. The values expressed in this new press
were overwhelmingly consistent with the bourgeois middle class - an
emphasis on the importance of property rights, religious toleration and liberty from Continentalabsolutism.[6]Journalism in the first half of the 18th century produced many great writers such as Daniel Defoe, Jonathan Swift, Joseph Addison, Richard Steele, Henry Fielding, and Samuel Johnson.
Men such as these edited newspapers, or wrote essays for the popular
press on topical issues. Their material was entertaining and informative
and was met with an insatiable demand from ordinary citizens of the
middle class, who were beginning to participate in the flow of ideas and
news.[10]The newspaper was becoming so popular that publishers began to print
daily issues. The first daily newspaper in the world was the Daily Courant,
established by Samuel Buckley in 1702 on the streets of London. The
newspaper strictly restricted itself to the publication of news and
facts without opinion pieces, and was able to avoid political
interference through raising revenue by selling advertising space in its
columns.[11]

Defoe in particular is regarded as a pioneer of modern journalism with his publication The Storm in 1704,[12] which has been called the first substantial work of modern journalism, as well as the first account of a hurricane in Britain.[12] It details the events of a terrible week-long storm that hit London starting Nov 24, 1703, known as the Great Storm of 1703,
described by Defoe as "The Greatest, the Longest in Duration, the
widest in Extent, of all the Tempests and Storms that History gives any
Account of since the Beginning of Time."[12]Defoe used eyewitness accounts by placing newspaper ads asking
readers to submit personal accounts, of which about 60 were selected and
edited by Defoe for the book.[12] This was an innovative method for the time before journalism that relied on first-hand reports was commonplace.[12]Richard Steele, influenced by Defoe, set up The Tatler in 1709 as a publication of the news and gossip heard in London coffeehouses,
hence the title. It presented Whiggish views and created guidelines for
middle-class manners, while instructing "these Gentlemen, for the most
part being Persons of strong Zeal, and weak Intellects...what to think."[13]Jonathan Swift wrote his greatest satires for The Examiner,
often in allegorical form, lampooning the controversies between the
Tories and Whigs. The so-called "Cato Letters," written by John
Trenchard and Thomas Gordon under the pseudonym, "Cato", were published
in the London Journal in the 1720s and discussed the theories of the Commonwealth men
such as ideas about liberty, representative government, and freedom of
expression. These letters had a great impact in colonial America and the
nascent republican movement all the way up to the signing of the Declaration of Independence.[10]The increasing popularity and influence of newspapers was unappealing
to the government of the day. The first bill in parliament advocating a
tax on newspapers was proposed in 1711. The duty eventually imposed in
1712 was a halfpenny on papers of half a sheet or less and a penny on
newspapers that ranged from half a sheet to a single sheet in size.
Jonathan Swift expressed in his Journal to Stella in August 7, 1712, doubt in the ability of The Spectator
to hold out against the tax. This doubt was proved justified in
December 1712 by its discontinuance. However, some of the existing
journals continued production and their numbers soon increased. Part of
this increase was attributed to corruption and political connections of
its owners. Later, toward the middle of the same century, the provisions
and the penalties of the Stamp Act
were made more stringent, yet the number of newspapers continued to
rise. In 1753 the total number of copies of newspapers sold yearly in
Britain amounted to 7,411,757. In 1760 it had risen to 9,464,790 and in
1767 to 11,300,980. In 1776 the number of newspapers published in London
alone had increased to 53.[14]An important figure in the fight for increased freedom of the press was John Wilkes. When the Scottish John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute, came to head the government in 1762, Wilkes started a radical weekly publication, The North Briton, to attack him, using an anti-Scots tone. He was charged with seditious libel over attacks on George III's speech endorsing the Paris Peace Treaty
of 1763 at the opening of Parliament on 23 April 1763. Forty-nine
people, including Wilkes, were arrested under the warrants. Wilkes,
however, gained considerable popular support as he asserted the
unconstitutionality of general warrants. At his court hearing the Lord
Chief Justice ruled that as an MP, Wilkes was protected by privilege
from arrest on a charge of libel. He was soon restored to his seat and
he sued his arresters for trespass.[15]As a result of this episode, his popular support surged, with people
chanting, "Wilkes, Liberty and Number 45", referring to the newspaper.
However, he was soon found guilty of libel again and he was sentenced to
22 months imprisonment and a fine of £1,000. Although he was
subsequently elected 3 times in a row for Middlesex,
the decision was overturned by Parliament. When he was finally released
from prison in 1770 he campaigned for increased freedom of the press;
specifically he defended the right of publishers to print reports of
Parliamentary debates. Due to large and growing support, the government
was forced to back down and abandoned its attempts at censorship.

19th Century

By the early 19th century, there were 52 London papers and over 100
other titles. In 1802 and 1815 the tax on newspapers was increased to
three pence and then four pence. Unable or unwilling to pay this fee,
between 1831 and 1835 hundreds of untaxed newspapers made their
appearance. The political tone of most of them was fiercely
revolutionary. Their publishers were prosecuted but this failed to get
rid of them. It was chiefly Milner Gibson and Richard Cobden who
advocated the case in parliament to first reduce in 1836 and in 1855
totally repeal of the tax on newspapers. After the reduction of the
stamp tax in 1836 from four pence to one penny, the circulation of
English newspapers rose from 39,000,000 to 122,000,000 by 1854;[16] a trend further exacerbated by technological improvements in transportation and communication combined with growing literacy.

The Times

The Daily Universal Register began life in 1785 and was later to become known as The Times from 1788.[17] In 1817, Thomas Barnes
was appointed general editor; he was a political radical, a sharp
critic of parliamentary hypocrisy and a champion of freedom of the
press.[18] Under Barnes and his successor in 1841, John Thadeus Delane, the influence of The Times rose to great heights, especially in politics and amongst the City of London. It spoke for reform.[19]Due to his influential support for Catholic Emancipation in Ireland, Barnes was described by his colleague Lord Lyndhurst as "the most powerful man in the country."[20] Peter Fraser and Edward Sterling were two noted journalists, and gained for The Times
the pompous/satirical nickname 'The Thunderer' (from "We thundered out
the other day an article on social and political reform.") The paper was
the first in the world to reach mass circulation due to its early
adoption of the steam-driven rotary printing press. It was also the
first properly national newspaper, as it was distributed via the new
steam trains to rapidly growing concentrations of urban populations
across the country. This helped ensure the profitability of the paper
and its growing influence.[21]The Times was the first newspaper to send war correspondents to cover particular conflicts. W. H. Russell, the paper's correspondent with the army in the Crimean War,
wrote immensely influential dispatches; for the first time the public
could read about the reality of warfare. In particular, on September 20,
1854, Russell wrote a missive about one battle that highlighted the
surgeons' "humane barbarity" and the lack of ambulance care for wounded
troops. Shocked and outraged, the public's backlash led to major
reforms.[22]

The Times became famous for its influential leaders
(editorials). For example, Robert Lowe wrote them between 1851 and 1868
on a wide range of economic topics such as free trade (which he
favored).[23]

Manchester Guardian

The Manchester Guardian was founded in Manchester in 1821 by a group of non-conformist businessmen. Its most famous editor, Charles Prestwich Scott, made the Guardian into a world-famous newspaper in the 1890s. The Daily Telegraph
was first published on June 29, 1855 and was owned by Arthur Sleigh,
who transferred it to Joseph Levy the following year. Levy produced it
as the first penny newspaper in London. His son, Edward Lawson soon
became editor, a post he held until 1885. The Daily Telegraph
became the organ of the middle class and could claim the largest
circulation in the world in 1890. It held a consistent Liberal Party
allegiance until opposing Gladstone's foreign policy in 1878 when it
turned Unionist.[24]

New Journalism

The New Journalism reached out not to the elite but to a popular audience.[25][26] Especially influential was William Thomas Stead, a controversial journalist and editor who pioneered the art of investigative journalism.[27] Stead's 'new journalism' paved the way for the modern tabloid.[28]
He was influential in demonstrating how the press could be used to
influence public opinion and government policy, and advocated
"government by journalism".[29] He was also well known for his reportage on child welfare, social legislation and reformation of England's criminal codes.Stead became assistant editor of the Liberal Pall Mall Gazette
in 1880 where he set about revolutionizing a traditionally conservative
newspaper "written by gentlemen for gentlemen." Over the next seven
years Stead would develop what Matthew Arnold dubbed 'The New Journalism'.[30] His innovations as editor of the Gazette
included incorporating maps and diagrams into a newspaper for the first
time, breaking up longer articles with eye-catching subheadings and
blending his own opinions with those of the people he interviewed. He
made a feature of the Pall Mall extras, and his enterprise and
originality exercised a potent influence on contemporary journalism and
politics. Stead's first sensational campaign was based on a
Nonconformist pamphlet, "The Bitter Cry of Outcast London." His lurid
stories of squalid life spurred the government into clearing the slums
and building low-cost housing in their place. He also introduced the
interview, creating a new dimension in British journalism when he
interviewed General Gordon in 1884.[31]
His use of sensationalist headlines is exemplified with the death of
Gordon in Khartoum in 1885, when he ran the first 24-point headline in
newspaper history, "TOO LATE!", bemoaning the relief force's failure to
rescue a national hero.[32]
He is also credited as originating the modern journalistic technique of
creating a news event rather than just reporting it, with his most
famous 'investigation', the Eliza Armstrong case.[33]Matthew Arnold, the leading critic of the day, declared in 1887 that
the New Journalism, "is full of ability, novelty, variety, sensation,
sympathy, generous instincts." However, he added, its "one great fault
is that it is feather-brained."[34]

Alfred Harmsworth,1st Viscount Northcliffe

A pioneer of popular journalism for the masses had been the ChartistNorthern Star, first published on 26 May 1838. The same time saw the first cheap newspaper in the Daily Telegraph and Courier (1855), later to be known simply as the Daily Telegraph. The Illustrated London News, founded in 1842, was the world's first illustrated weekly newspaper.From 1860 until around 1910 is considered a 'golden age' of newspaper
publication, with technical advances in printing and communication
combined with a professionalisation of journalism and the prominence of
new owners.

20th Century

The turn of the century saw the rise of tabloid journalism aimed at the working class and tending to emphasize sensational topics. Alfred Harmsworth or Lord Northcliffe, was an early pioneer of this style. In 1896 he began publishing the Daily Mail in London, which was a hit, holding the world record for daily circulation until Harmsworth's death; taglines of The Daily Mail included "the busy man's daily journal" and "the penny newspaper for one halfpenny". Prime Minister Robert Cecil, Lord Salisbury, said it was "written by office boys for office boys".[35]
He used his newspapers newly found influence, in 1899, to successfully
make a charitable appeal for the dependents of soldiers fighting in the South African War by inviting Rudyard Kipling and Arthur Sullivan to write The Absent-Minded Beggar.[36]Socialist and labour newspapers also proliferated and in 1912 the Daily Herald was launched as the first daily newspaper of the trade union and labour movement.

United States

India

On May 30, 1826 Udant Martand (The Rising Sun), the first Hindi-language newspaper published in India, started from Calcutta (now Kolkata), published every Tuesday by Pt. Jugal Kishore Shukla.[37][38] Maulawi Muhammad Baqir in 1836 founded the first Urdu-language newspaper the Delhi Urdu Akhbar.
India's press in the 1840s was a motley collection of small-circulation
daily or weekly sheets printed on rickety presses. Few extended beyond
their small communities and seldom tried to unite the many castes,
tribes, and regional subcultures of India. The Anglo-Indian papers
promoted purely British interests. Englishman Robert Knight (1825-1890)
founded two important English-language newspapers that reached a broad
Indian audience, The Times of India and the Statesman.
They promoted nationalism in India, as Knight introduced the people to
the power of the press and made them familiar with political issues and
the political process.[39]

Latin America

British influence extended globally through its colonies and its
informal business relationships with merchants in major cities. They
needed up-to-date market and political information. El Mercurio was founded in Valparaiso, Chile, in 1827. The most influential newspaper in Peru, El Comercio, first appeared in 1839. The Jornal do Commercio was established in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1827. Much later Argentina founded its newspapers in Buenos Aires: La Prensa in 1869 and La Nacton in 1870.[40]

Radio and television

The history of radio broadcasting begins in the 1920s, and reached
its apogee in the 1930s and 1940s. Experimental television was being
studied before the 2nd world war, became operational in the late 1940s,
and became widespread in the 1950s and 1960s, largely but not entirely
displacing radio.

Internet journalism

The rapidly growing impact of the Internet, especially after 2000,
brought "free" news and classified advertising to audiences that no
longer cared for paid subscriptions. The Internet undercut the business
model of many daily newspapers. Bankruptcy loomed across the U.S. and
did hit such major papers as the Rocky Mountain news (Denver), the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times,
among many others. Chapman and Nuttall find that proposed solutions,
such as multiplatforms, paywalls, PR-dominated news gathering, and
shrinking staffs have not resolved the challenge. The result, they
argue, is that journalism today is characterized by four themes:
personalization, globalization, localization, and pauperization.[41]

Historiography

Journalism historian David Nord has argued that in the 1960s and 1970s:

"In journalism history and media history, a new generation of
scholars . . . criticised traditional histories of the media for being
too insular, too decontextualised, too uncritical, too captive to the
needs of professional training, and too enamoured of the biographies of
men and media organizations."[42]

In 1974, James W. Carey identified the ‘Problem of Journalism History’. The field was dominated by a Whig interpretation of journalism history.

"This views journalism history as the slow, steady expansion of
freedom and knowledge from the political press to the commercial press,
the setbacks into sensationalism and yellow journalism, the forward
thrust into muck raking and social responsibility....the entire story is
framed by those large impersonal forces buffeting the press:
industrialisation, urbanisation and mass democracy.[43]

O'Malley says the criticism went too far, because there was much of value in the deep scholarship of the earlier period.[44]

Wolff, Michael. The Man Who Owns the News: Inside the Secret World of Rupert Murdoch (2008) 446 pages and text search, A media baron in Australia, UK and the US

Britain

Briggs Asa. The BBC—the First Fifty Years (: Oxford University Press, 1984).

Briggs Asa. The History of Broadcasting in the United Kingdom (Oxford University Press, 1961).

Crisell, Andrew An Introductory History of British Broadcasting. 2nd ed. London: Routledge. (2002)

Scannell, Paddy, and Cardiff, David. A Social History of British Broadcasting, Volume One, 1922-1939 (Basil Blackwell, 1991).

Boswell, James. Facts and Inventions: Selections from the Journalism of James Boswell. Edited by Paul Tankard. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2014. ISBN 978-0-300-14126-9

United States

Barnouw Erik. The Golden Web (Oxford University Press, 1968); The Image Empire: A History of Broadcasting in the United States, Vol. 3: From 1953 (1970) excerpt and text search; The Sponsor (1978); A Tower in Babel (1966), to 1933, excerpt and text search; a history of American broadcasting

Blanchard, Margaret A., ed. History of the Mass Media in the United States, An Encyclopedia. (1998)

Craig, Douglas B. Fireside Politics: Radio and Political Culture in the United States, 1920-1940 (2005)

Emery, Michael, Edwin Emery, and Nancy L. Roberts. The Press and America: An Interpretive History of the Mass Media 9th ed. (1999.), standard textbook; best place to start.

McCourt; Tom. Conflicting Communication Interests in America: The Case of National Public Radio (Praeger Publishers, 1999) online

Sloan, W. David, James G. Stovall, and James D. Startt. The Media in America: A History, 4th ed. (1999)

Starr, Paul. The Creation of the Media: Political origins of Modern Communications (2004), far ranging history of all forms of media in 19th and 20th century US and Europe; Pulitzer prize excerpt and text search

Streitmatter, Rodger. Mightier Than the Sword: How the News Media Have Shaped American History (1997)online edition

Historiography

Daly, Chris. "The Historiography of Journalism History: Part 2: 'Toward a New Theory,'" American Journalism,
Winter 2009, Vol. 26 Issue 1, pp 148–155, stresses the tension between
the imperative form of business model and the dominating culture of news

Dooley, Brendan. "From Literary Criticism to Systems Theory in Early Modern Journalism History," Journal of the History of Ideas (1990) 51#3 pp 461–86.

Espejo, Carmen. "European Communication Networks in the Early Modern
Age: A new framework of interpretation for the birth of journalism," Media History (2011) 17#2 pp 189–202

Roland Pearsell (1969) The Worm in the Bud: The World of Victorian Sexuality: 369

The
Sunday Times (London) May 13, 2012 Sunday Edition 1; National Edition
Fleet Street's crusading villain; The Victorian editor whose love of
sensationalism set the tone for the tabloids for a century Scandalmonger
40-42

Roland Pearsell (1969) The Worm in the Bud: The World of Victorian Sexuality: 367-78